Technical Field
Embodiments described herein relate to a reactor in which chemical reaction is conducted with use of a reaction fluid which is a fluid containing a reactant, and the reaction is accelerated therewith by the action of a catalyst structure on the reaction fluid.
Description of the Related Art
A reactor is known as a chemical reaction device in which a gaseous or liquid fluid containing a reactant is heated or cooled to promote the reaction of the reactant. Reactors in which the reaction field is a minute space (compact reactors), such as a reactor having a flow passage cross section of the fluid in a size of about several mm on each side, and a micro reactor having a flow passage cross section in a size of less than 1 mm on each side, have a large specific surface area per unit volume. Therefore, they have a high heat transfer efficiency and can improve the reaction rate and the yield. In addition, rapid mixing and control to achieve active concentration distribution are made possible by arbitrarily configuring the convection or diffusion aspect, and therefore the reaction can be precisely controlled.
Such a reactor is configured so that a single inlet passage is branched into a plurality of reaction flow passages (reaction field), and the multiple reaction flow passages branched are united in a single outlet flow passage. In addition, the multiple reaction flow passages are arranged in parallel, and a catalyst is placed in each of the reaction flow passages. Therefore, the reactant contained in the fluid (reaction fluid) introduced into the inlet flow passage becomes the reaction product in the plurality of reaction flow passages due to the progress of the reaction, and the reaction product is discharged to the outside through the outlet flow passage.
As the technology for placing the catalyst in the reaction flow passages, there is disclosed a technology of supporting the catalyst on metal plates having a flat plate shape and installing the metal plates supporting the catalyst over the entire length of the reaction flow passage so that the catalyst is uniformly arranged over the entire area of the reaction flow passage (for example, Publication Document 1).